Job Candidates

The Department of Economics works with advanced doctoral students to provide preparation for the job market. Each year, the department refreshes its list of job market candidates. For questions, please contact the Chair of the Department, Mark Setterfield

• Ibrahim K. Shikaki

   

  Expected Completion of PhD Date:
  May 2019

  CV (PDF)

  Major Fields:
  Macroeconomics, Political Economy, Development  

  Dissertation Title:
  Distribution & Growth in Politically-Contested Areas: Measurement and Applications in Palestine

  Profile:
  My research interests include the fields of growth and distribution, economic development, macroeconomics, and political economy. I am particularly interested in identifying and rectifying the shortcomings of economic analysis when studying the diverse political, social and institutional context of the poorest countries in the Global South.  

  In my dissertation, I touch on two main examples of such shortcomings: the availability and quality of data, and the fact that institutional and behavioral assumptions in most models are more attuned to advanced industrial countries. I use the Palestinian economy as an example of a small, poor, dependent and open economy.  

  My first paper adjusts the conventional approach used to measure the labor share when no data is available. The model in my second paper incorporates the impact of movement restrictions and weak bargaining power of labor. My final paper presents a nuanced interpretation of the Palestinian economy framed in terms of a structuralist/institutionalist narrative. 

  Contact Email:
  i.shikaki@newschool.edu

• B. Guney Isikara

  Expected Completion Date of PhD:
  May 2019

  CV (PDF)

  Major Fields:
  Political Economy, Microeconomics, History of Economic Thought, Economic History

  Dissertation Title:
  Essays on Markets and Planning

  Profile:
  My current research focuses on the operation of the market mechanism and alternative mechanisms that can complement and/or replace the former. I am particularly interested in the study of externalities which represent a fissure between the private/economic and the social, and analyzing these from the perspectives of microeconomics and political economy.
  
  In my dissertation, after raising the question of externalities, efficiency, and optimality in the context of markets and
  economic planning in the first chapter, I measure the weight of essentials in economic activity in the second chapter. For the sphere of consumption, I employ national Input-Output data and construct Sraffian net-product subsystems, whereas for the consumption sphere I rely on household final consumption expenditure data.

  The third chapter takes up the dichotomy of growth vs. degrowth within the context of global warming, and provides a measure of living energy associated with the consumption of essentials, which serves as a benchmark for the actual energy consumption of different income classes. This opens up a tangible political space in the junction of social, economic, and environmental concerns, leading to the question of growth and degrowth for whom?

  Contact Email:
  guneyisikara@newschool.edu

• Jose Alejandro Coronado

  

  Expected Completion of PhD Date:
  May 2019

  CV (PDF)

  Major Fields:
  Political Economy, Microeconomics, Complexity Economics, and the History of
  Economic Thought

  Dissertation Title:
  Essays on Information Theory and its Applications to Economic Analysis

  Profile:
  My primary fields of research are Political Economy, Microeconomics, Complexity Economics, and the History of Economic Thought. I am interested in analytical tools used to study complex systems, such as information theory, to represent economic systems with emergent phenomena and study individuals with bounded rationality.

  Concretely, my dissertation uses the principle of maximum entropy to model scenarios in which individuals have bounded rationality. This means that they choose their actions stochastically, but higher probability is assigned to actions that benefit them the most.

  For example, in my first essay of my doctoral dissertation I use the principle of maximum entropy in order to build a model that is able to explain statistical regularities found when performing experiments of the ultimatum game. I show that the probability distribution of offers and rejection rates can be characterized by a model of agents that have bounded rationality and are motivated by reciprocity.

  The second essay proposes a social interaction model that attempts to represent Adam Smith's "early and rude state of society." I argue that the long-period equilibrium in classical political economy is a statistical equilibrium, and because of this the model yields a scenario in which individual producers do not produce at full capacity.

  My final essay proposes a statistical partial equilibrium analysis in line with Marshall's canonical model. The statistical nature of the equilibrium approach implies that there is an equilibrium distribution of commodity prices in the
  economy.

  Contact Email:
  coroj173@newschool.edu

• Deon Frederick Gibson

   

  Expected Completion of PhD Date:
  May 2018

  CV(pdf) 

  Major Field:
  Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Labor Economics, Political Economy and Public Policy 

  Dissertation Title:
  Three Essays on the Wage Share-Unemployment Relationship 

  Profile: 
  My primary areas of research are Labor Economics, Political Economy and Public Policy. I am currently investigating the historical decline of the wage share in advanced economies to identify the main causes of the decline and suggest methods for reversing this trend. To accomplish this I’ve built a model of the rate of change of the wage share and used it in a number of experiments on sixteen (16) OECD countries. 

  My doctoral dissertation is comprised of three essays. Essay (1) estimates the model on US data and concludes that technological change, the declining size of government and the degree of unionization are the variables with the strongest influence on the wage share. In Essay (2) the model is estimated on data from sixteen (16) OECD countries divided into groups based on the nature of the market economy and the degree of economic freedom. This essay identifies technological change as the main driver of changes in the wage share in all 16 countries, but it also identifies differences in country groups. For example, in Liberal and Hybrid Market Economies the wage share is sensitive to the size of government, while in Free and Mostly Free economies globalization and financialization are highly influential on changes in the wage share. In Essay (3) a closer examination of the relationship between the real wage, productivity and unemployment demonstrates that the impact of unemployment on the wage share and the real wage increased as the US transitioned into the “Neo-Liberal Era”. 

  My research concludes that the main cause of the decline of the wage share in advanced economies is a reduction in the bargaining power of workers triggered by increases in technological change and a reduction in the size of government and the degree unionization. Consequently, it suggests that a reversal of the downward trend of the wage share could be achieved through more “Progressive” governance. 

  Contact Email:
  gibsd573@newschool.edu